- 6:10 pm - Wed, Feb 8, 2012
- 17 notes
How Tumblr Should Do Promoted Posts
caterpillarcowboy:
Thoughts expressed in this post are derived from conversations with Julie Fredrickson and Greg Battle.
As you all have seen, Tumblr recently began playing with the idea of publishers paying $1 to highlight posts in the stream. As I said then, I’m glad Tumblr is experimenting, and every time a community-based site makes changes, it always runs the risk of backlash, so kudos to them for having the fortitude to try new things.
With that said, who is it for? Regular users who tumble for fun about cats and last night’s dinner? Brands like Newsweek and Vogue? The $1 price points to “it’s for everyone” but the nature of announcements & promotions is dominated by organizations with an agenda. Given the desire of the latter group, I’d make them the focus.
If we were to start from scratch and think about how organizations could best promote their posts while maintaining the integrity of the Tumblr eco-system, I think we should take a page from Facebook’s Sponsored Stories. In the right rail of the dashboard, underneath (or instead of) the Radar, Tumblr should show a post by someone you already follow if they’ve paid to have their post featured there. The purpose is to reinforce the message of the post in case you missed it or forgot about it. Advertisers can pay more for more impressions, which is exactly what they want. Users don’t feel like they are being spammed, because they only see posts by people they already choose to follow. And Tumblr finally gets to monetize what they have in abundance - dashboard page views (hundreds of millions every day).
gbattle sez:
OK, I’ll bite.
I have a little different take than David (who I think is right about Sponsored Stories replacing Radar).
For my $1, I’d love to make sure that I get exactly one impression per user such that the post isn’t simply emphasized visually, but guaranteeing the impression via enforcing each unique delivery. That’s something I’d pay for, such that I don’t have to worry about the timing of my post on Tumblr because my followers are guaranteed to see it at least once.
OR…
For my $1, I’d love to have a way to encourage reblogs, which could be done by allowing a certain number or time window of reblogs to also gain the promotional certification. Each generation of reblog, the promotion fades into the background until, say, 4 or 5 levels deep, it disappears completely - the utility of the promotion is complete. Or, maybe you can add more money to extend the levels of promotional ability - $1 for every level. If I want to enable 5 reblog levels of promotional juice, I pay $5. I can buy as much AdWords or Sponsored Stories juice as my wallet can handle, why not create the authentic sharing version of this within Tumblr?
OR…
What else could one get for $1? Well, this month, you could spend that $1 to utilize the entire Social Flow platform for a month to promote your services across Twitter and Facebook to users who don’t normally see your posts, all optimized for audience receptivity. (And no, I’m not being paid by Social Flow, but I do dig Frank and the gang).
As much as I like my ideas, I think the last option is the smartest use of your $1 as you can use it for all of your posts for a month. Optimized content delivery beats pixel perfect design. The idea of promoting content to people who already receive that content seems somewhat inauthentic. That’s not encouraging discovery, that’s shilling.
Notes
- relevancer liked this
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roflrob reblogged this from caterpillarcowboy and added:
going pro mode maybe?
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whitneymcn reblogged this from caterpillarcowboy and added:
I like David’s...here. Having a radar-like box that displays posts that your Tumblverse...
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gbattle reblogged this from caterpillarcowboy and added:
gbattle sez: OK, I’ll bite. I...a little different take than David (who
- evangotlib liked this
- lilyb said: This is a good use of the empty space, and if I already followed you, I’d be likely to pay close attention, rather than ignore whatever is going on there, as I do right now. Also, I might use it, and I probably won’t use the current arrow thing.
- gbattle liked this
- lickypickystickyfree said: I said this 3 years ago when the Radar appeared. Use that as “paid space” for all those who want to appear to the whole tumblr.-verse. Much better than these tags that now look just like stickers I used to put in my high school books and agenda.
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